Last week, I finally finished my beaded Radio City Music Hall painting! This piece consists of glass seed beads and speaker grill fabric stitched to an acrylic-painted canvas. (You can view an enlarged photo on Flickr.) I have worked on this off and on since October, so I feel it’s a real accomplishment to finally have it completed and hanging on my wall. Over the next few weeks, I will be working on a couple of smaller beadwork projects while I think about the subject of my next big painting… I’ll also be busy packing and getting ready to move back to Boston… New beading adventures await! :D

Today, just a quick post to show you the 2nd beaded taxi cab I’ve been beading. I worked on this during the past couple of days. I think it is mostly complete, although I still have a bit more work to do on the tires. I also noticed that there is more felt showing through on this car than there is on the previous car. I’m not sure I like that, so I may decide to stitch on some more seed beads here and there.. How do you think it looks in the big picture – next to my beaded Radio City Music Hall? :D

Semi-beaded Radio City Music Hall painting. Bead embroidery on felt. Work in progress.

Today, I finished beading my first NYC taxi cab! I used many different colour glass seed beads in size 11 & 15. There are also some size 10 triangles on the rear windshield. And, as you can see, the felt is not completely beaded! There is some bare felt showing through! I hope this helps convey that the car is speeding down the street in front of my beaded Radio City Music Hall… What do you think? :O

Semi-beaded Radio City Music Hall (NYC). Bead embroidery on felt. Beadwork 15″ x 20″. (38cm x 51cm) Work in progress.

Today, I started beading my first NYC taxi cab! This is the first of 4 or 5 taxi cabs to be included in my beaded Radio City Music Hall painting. I am taking a slightly different approach to these cars. I want them to look less detailed than usual and very much like my initial sketch. Almost as if they are speeding down the street!

I am using the beaded backstitch and lazy-stitch techniques. I’m using black, metallic brown, gray, pink, yellow, and silver-lined clear seed beads. These are mostly size 11, but some are size 15. As you can see in the photo below, I am beading right off the edge of the felt! How does it look so far?

Also, just wanted to let everyone know that I am getting back into sending out regular newsletters! After moving my blog to WordPress, I had to migrate my newsletter mailing list to a more efficient service. You can read a copy of my latest newsletter HERE. Please sign up to receive updates regarding new beadwork, exhibitions, publications, special offers, & giveaways. Click on the postmark image at the top of my blog! Back to beading! :D